Managing the remote provisioning and updating of credentials across millions of devices throughout their lifecycle presents numerous challenges in ensuring security and privacy. Yet, the primary industry hurdle lies in the ability to protect IoT data communications at scale in a standardized way. Right now, enterprise security is a major priority for cellular IoT adopters.
Enterprises prioritize strong security measures in IoT Connectivity. In Kaleido’s 2024 Enterprise IoT Survey, respondents were asked about their views on potential cybersecurity breach threats. The results showed that more than 89% percent of cellular IoT users expressed significant concern regarding these threats. This underscores that enterprises are highly aware of the need to implement strong security measures.
Extensive security features are actively sought after by many users, with 60% putting them in the top 5 features they look for in an IoT connectivity service provider’s (CSP) offering.
Source: Kaleido Intelligence
Source: Kaleido Intelligence
IoT sensors play a vital role across numerous applications, leading to advantages like predictive maintenance and enhanced resource optimization. Essentially, they diagnose issues in connected vehicles, support secure mobile payment systems, manage competent energy resources, enable safe asset tracking, and ensure secure data transfer and storage.
Enterprises are increasingly adopting cellular IoT as part of the digital transformation process to automate their products and business processes. These devices collect and transmit data, typically responding to predefined event rules. Furthermore, they send the gathered information to a cloud-computing service, where software processes it to determine whether an action should be taken. Through this data, businesses unlock real-time insights into their performance and identify areas of inefficiency to improve the customer experience.
Many IoT devices are linked to cellular networks and use eSIM to ensure strong security and reliable network connectivity. Whether you are looking at connectivity or device management, the advantages of eSIM can be leveraged across most use cases, including, transportation, utilities, smart cities, and manufacturing. Although terms like 3 G, 4G, 5G, NB-IoT, and LTE-M can appear overwhelming, organizations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the GSMA bring the mobile ecosystem together through network and device certification.
eSIM offers several advantages through centralized distribution, which streamlines the process of delivering credentials and improves key provisioning for the security of IoT devices. The secure element within the chip acts as tamper-resistant hardware, ensuring the integrity and safeguarding of each device’s identity. Kigen’s eSIM operating system holds GSMA certification for manufacturing, secure profile provisioning and firmware updates.
Businesses managing IoT ecosystems should consider implementing strict access controls for all devices. However, compact and low-power devices may lack CPU memory capabilities to uphold strong security measures. As a result, an end-to-end approach is essential to ensuring the security of IoT devices, spanning from the device itself to cloud services where data is processed.
51% of enterprise cellular IoT adopters put end-to-end security in their top 5 essential IoT connectivity factors.
Source: Kaleido Intelligence
At the same time, various hardware, operating systems and deployment methods exacerbate the complexity of securing IoT devices. Many devices, including machine-to-machine (M2M), operate without human interaction, executing automated workloads, which creates difficulties when integrating them into existing identity and access management frameworks. M2M technology enables devices to communicate directly with each other, forming a network of interconnected objects that share data together. This collaboration ultimately boosts productivity but also poses a vulnerability risk.
1- When building an IoT application, it’s crucial to incorporate all security aspects such as ‘secure by design’ principles while maintaining a consistent strategy for update management.
2- Integrating and synchronizing IoT data is important for improving security. This involves detecting anomalies at the device, network, and transport layers.
3- Verifying that all third-party vendors implement robust security controls by compliance standards.
4- Establish effective incident response capabilities to identify, contain and eliminate cyber threats while maintaining communication with all stakeholders.
The Zero Trust model operates on the principle that any external interaction has the potential to be harmful and is treated as ‘untrusted’ until it is thoroughly verified as safe. This security framework mandates that all users—whether internal or external to the organization—must be authenticated and authorized to access.
All traffic must be authorized and encrypted, regardless of origin. Moreover, user and device sessions are restricted, and advanced identity verification methods, like multi-factor authentication (MFA), may be needed. In addition, these users must continuously verify their security settings before gaining access to applications and data. Read the Zero Trust blog here.
Manufacturers of IoT devices can implement the GSMS IoT SAFE framework to safeguard their data while adhering to Cyber Resilience Act. Also worth noting is that secure provisioning processes are essential for validating the authenticity of each device before granting access to the network. Implementing these measures can prevent unauthorized access while facilitating a smooth and secure onboarding experience.
Kigen’s IoT SAFE enables a secure encryption connection to cloud services like AWS IoT Cloud. This approach eliminates the need to provision credentials directly on the device. Instead, credentials can be securely provisioned onto the eSIM, significantly enhancing security. The system also supports signature verification as required, adding another layer of protection.
Here’s a breakdown of the IoT SAFE features:
In addition, Kigen’s firmware update capabilities enable organizations to quickly deploy security patches and strengthen IoT devices against evolving cyber threats. Kigen’s SIMs are developed in fully certified facilities for both manufacturers for UICC Production (SAS-UP) and management of the GSMA Security Accreditation Scheme for Subscription Management (SAS-SM).
IoT SAFE facilitates data analysis collected from devices by securely signing the information before it is transmitted. It’s important to guarantee that the connection to the cloud service remains secure which can be accomplished by utilizing DTLS or standard TLS encryption methods. Additionally, it is essential that authorized individuals do not interfere with the device.
eSIM technology is based on interoperable security standards, which streamline security by unifying it within a single hardware component in eSIM-enabled devices. This method supports various scenarios, including chip-to-cloud communication rooted in zero-trust principles.
Sign-up for our newsletter to receive the latest from Kigen.
Kigen, Crypto Quantique, and ZARIOT have collaborated to develop a solution that facilitates zero-touch provisioning with encrypted data connectivity for server-hosted applications, applicable to both on-premises and cloud environments for all cellular IoT devices. This solution enhances IoT SAFE by enabling devices to establish rapid and secure connections to any cloud or data center, thus ensuring secure end-to-end communication. Watch the video here.
The partnership between Kigen KORE and Energy Web capitalizes on the capabilities of eSIM and Open IoT SAFE technologies. This system functions as a hardware wallet that interfaces with an open-source blockchain supported by Energy Web. Organizations can utilize Energy Web’s advancements to construct their applications employing the world’s first open-source technology stack to facilitate the transition to renewable energy. Access the case study here.
The solution developed by Kigen and ZARIOT employs OPEN IoT SAFE within a peer-to-peer framework, permitting the retrofitting of diverse existing devices. The @platform is designed to protect data privacy through robust authentication and encryption mechanisms, thereby restoring data control to its rightful owners.
In conclusion, more organizations focus on end-to-end security as they prioritize secure network connections and seek to scale their IoT deployments. There is still a pressing need to raise awareness about the advantages of eSIM enabling security for IoT fleets and the data-rich opportunities this brings. Manufacturers and enterprises should implement a thorough IoT security strategy that protects their networks from current and emerging threats. Adopting innovative IoT security methods that safeguard identities and enhance authentication can unlock new possibilities for data generation and drive digital revenue growth.